Question: Recently the US President Joe Biden has signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, which includes enhancing the US military spending, strengthening its deterrence in the Pacific, and countering "Chinese military activity" in the Indo-Pacific region. It also proposed to assist the Taiwan region in strengthening its defense. What's your response for that?
Defense Spokesperson Wu Qian: The US Act makes groundless hypes about the so-called "China military threat", grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs, and severely harms China's national sovereignty, security and development interests. The Chinese military strongly deplores and firmly opposes to that.
The US military expenditure tops the world and is larger than those of the next nine countries combined, accounting for 40% of the total global military expenditure. On the one hand, the US is accelerating its military development, intensifying military deployment in the Asia-Pacific, strengthening bilateral military alliance, and piecing together AUKUS and QUAD. On the other hand, it is making an issue of China, hyping up the so-called “China military threat” out of thin air. Such manipulations intensify block confrontation and arms race and cause a severe impact on the current international security system and global governance system. We urge the US to abandon the out-dated security vision and zero-sum cold war mentality, view China and China’s military development in an objective and rational light, instead of being obsessed with the pursuit for hegemony.
The Taiwan question is purely China's internal affair, which brooks no foreign interference. We firmly oppose any country to have official and military contact with Taiwan in any form. The US is manipulating the Taiwan question in various forms, which is a very dangerous gamble. We urge the US to fully realize the severe harm of the China-related content in the NDAA, stop arming Taiwan under any excuses and by any means, stop its provocations by using Taiwan to contain China, and take concrete actions to maintain regional peace and stability.